Well today I was supposed to do W8R1... but with my first 5K Charity Race on this coming Saturday I thought I'd go for distance not runtime... I listened to my own music on my ipod and hit the timer Start button when I started to jog. I had mapped out 5K on MapMyRun, and it was a LOT further than I had run before, not even including the usual 5mins warm up and the 5 mins cool down. I was in for a real challenge... and, it WAS. The hills were the most challenging... and there were times when I really thought I needed to stop. I peeked at my timer when I thought "oh shit I'm going to stop..." and I was at 27mins, and I had a lot more distance left to cover! Haha W8R1 was looking really good now! But I kept on going b/c I had to finish that damn 5K!!!

On the home stretch I really went all out, it was a bit down hill so I booted it and imagined a crowd cheering me on!!!

Crossed the "finish line"... at 34:43! I don't even know if that's a good time, but I can tell you that I was a tad disappointed, as my much younger colleague at work told me she just ran 5K in 29 mins last night, and she's also doing the C25K!

I walked and walked after for 20 mins, just cooling down, and calming my queasy stomach. Now that I'm home - fed and watered - I'm feeling good. I'm proud of myself for running the whole 5K, but geez it's nagging at me that I didn't come close to my colleague's time!!

8 weeks ago running for 1 min was an accomplishment! And now I just did 34 of them, I should feel WAY better about myself.

I'm going back to Laura on Tuesday! She always makes me feel good!

8 Replies

You're not that far away from her! And it is a really great time, take a look at people's blogs, some others on this programme run much slower than that. Besides, it's not really about speed, but about having been able to run for that long... Well done you!

Being competitive is only good if it encourages you to do better. If it gets you down, don't compare yourself!

That is a fantastic time! Be really proud of yourself and how much you have accomplished in a short time Don't compare yourself to others, we are different ages, sizes and level of fitness. What you have done is great. I agree about what Monemy said about being competitive: compete with yourself and not others, especially if you undervalue what you have actually achieved, as it is really demotivating. No more sad faces only smilies please

This is about you and you alone, don't compare yourself to others and remember, this program is not a race. Be very proud of what you achieved today, running 5k at week 8 is brilliant so don't put yourself down! As rockchick says we are all different so turn that frown upside down as they say!!

I graduated in November, have been speeding up gradually all year, and your 5K time was still faster than I'd be able to do! And if it makes you feel better, I have a colleague who is over ten years older than me, hadn't run in a few years, and did her first treadmill run faster and longer than I can dream of - but as everyone's said, it's not a race; it's about pushing yourself and testing your own achievements.

On average, younger people go faster with less effort (there are always exceptions though - some of the fastest women on here are not the youngest), and on average, men go faster with less effort than women. But averages are just that - average, and we're all individuals.

I'm one of the slowest (and not one of the oldest), but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy running enormously, and it certainly doesn't mean that it isn't making me fitter. And it definitely doesn't mean I wasn't putting in any effort!

When I graduated on a park run my time was 34m ish, now several months later I managed 25m ish, you will improve and change over the next few months, but remember you will have a lot more PBs a long the way to celebrate. Enjoy the journey

4 years agoHiddenGraduate

Thank you everyone for your encouragement and wise words! I do feel a whole lot better b/c of you all!